Riverstone Community Church - Audio Podcast

Mind Wars: How to Renew our Minds

·33 min·3 clips

How did feral pigs in England become a metaphor for the dangerous thoughts we allow to roam free in our minds?

The episode is a sermon delivered at Riverstone Community Church titled 'Mind Wars: How to Renew our Minds'. It opens with an extended analogy about feral pot-bellied pigs in Wessex, England, which were bought as cute pets but grew large and destructive when released, paralleling how small, seemingly harmless thoughts can become unruly and damaging in our minds. The speaker transitions to the spiritual battle for the mind, stating that the enemy, Satan, uses constant exposure to worldly ideas, philosophies, and soundbites to shape our worldview away from God's. He references Tim Chalains' quote that worldliness is like gravity, always exerting pressure. The biblical foundation is Romans 12:1-2, which calls believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices and not be conformed to the world but transformed by renewing their minds. The speaker explains that bad living stems from wrong thinking, and sinful actions are the fruit of rotten thinking. He critiques modern media, including TV shows, news networks, and music, for pushing agendas on politics, race, gender, and sexuality that normalize sinful behavior and shape worldviews. The sermon outlines a practical process for mind renewal: filter what enters the mind, flush out wrong thoughts through confession and repentance, and fill the mind with what is good and true, citing Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:2-4, and Joshua 1:8. He warns against merely emptying the mind without filling it, using Jesus' illustration in Matthew 12 about an unclean spirit returning with others worse than itself. The speaker emphasizes that renewing the mind requires thinking about one's thinking, evaluating thoughts, and engaging with them biblically. He quotes Dr. Wayne McGill on internal conversations and John Stott on the necessity of making up one's mind. The power for renewal is not self-effort but a vibrant relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, aided by obedience, which fuels further renewal. The sermon concludes with a prayer for mind renewal and a focus on God's glory.

As heard by us

A plain sermon on renewing the mind through clearing out false thinking and replacing it with what is good.

Mind Wars treats renewing the mind as slow, ordinary work. It opens with the story of pot-bellied pigs sold as micro-pigs, teacup pigs, or mini-pigs, then abandoned when their size and lifespan proved too much.

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Why you'd press play

A direct reset for a mind that feels cluttered, pulled, or in need of renewal.

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